If you've gotten that far, how do you make your cleric? Do you double-up your 5th character with a second, non-cleric class, or does your cleric pull double-duty, filling the role of the full basic class and a splash into the cleric skills? I'm a bit apoplectic right now, considering how late into the game the cleric comes (I was already level 15 by that time, so I can't go fully into both trees of the class).

There are really only two truly important unique cleric skills... the heal and the rez. I don't think that is really enough to warrant even a primary focus on the cleric skill tree. Essentially it is a few heals you can put on another class.

The combo I've used seems to work very well. A practitioner with a bit off offense, but lots in the meditate tree to gain/regen mana as quickly as possible. Sooo much mana. In easy fights use the mana for some extra damage. In hard fights, use the mana for heals.

I've noticed that the Fighter and the Rogue don't have any sources of mana, so the Monk Training seems almost essential for them. It almost looks as though a Paladin is built into the Fighter class, with the Command skill tree and the Veteran skill in the Attack skill tree.

Holy and Fanatical look to me to be extremely useful for Paladins (Fighter/Cleric) or a Monk (Rogue/Cleric). I like the Blood for Blood combination with Fanatical.

The reason why I'm not certain I want to go with a Practitioner is that their Spells skill tree is so deep, I'm not sure I can get enough skills to be able to utilize both of those trees. I haven't used stances yet--do you know if you can Meditate while Chanting (from Monk Training)? That could be a massive mana-building combination!

All my cleric builds are purely theoretical, because while I've unlocked the tree, I don't have any characters who could become clerics without a respec, and I can't hire a mercenary to be a cleric because you have to spend all their points in character creation.

That said,

I see a few different potential cleric builds. The cleric class has two trees -- six skills in the main tree (five worth taking imho) and a secondary supplement tree that's skippable. The cleric's mana regen per turn ability is a "stance."

First and most obvious is a mage cleric build. You'd get max spell points that way, huge mana regen and the cleric's mana skills could be a nice complement to the mage's mana builds (coupling the meditation and cleric stance mana regen). Problem is then your mage cleric is 1) fragile and 2) doing two jobs instead of just one.

Second option is a bard cleric. You could use the cleric skills to replace or complement the "drinking" tree for mana generation, give your party a second set of bard buffs, and have the cleric's resurrection as an emergency fallback.

Final option that looks like it works is a Vanguard fighter (bonus True damage on attacks if you have spell points) / cleric hybrid. This would be a front line fighter-cleric, probably using a shield, taking the various stances and the Leadership tree capstone that lets you share stances with the party. This would probably be a good build for Dalgliesh but start saving up skill points for him around level 10 so that by level 15 when you get the cleric tree he can max it out instantly. I'm not sure if that kind of build would have enough spell point max to ever cast the Resurrection spell though since it requires six spell points -- not sure.

I built a Practitioner into a Cleric. Since healing is Strength based, I went with a Baedish Practitioner and built off of that. I currently am using Arcane Barrage, Charged Bolt, Flesh Restore, and Chant.

I also have Dragon Breath, Warstrike, Change Fate, and Resurrect that I can swap in if needed. So far, I haven't needed.

In hindsight, I wish that I had saved some skill points and built a Bard into a Cleric as well. I'd have liked to experiment with it, but that isn't in the cards due to the lack of Respec and the fact that you have to spend all SP at character creation.

I'm not sure if that kind of build would have enough spell point max to ever cast the Resurrection spell though since it requires six spell points -- not sure.

You could through gear, but I haven't noticed much gear really geared towards this. (You'd have to take a notable nerf to armor to have enough spell points from the gear I've seen)

I think he's talking about generating six spell points with a paladin. Given that Monk Training only gives you 1 SP each turn from the stance. The only way to make that feasible is if you have a bard, who pretty much solely focuses on Spellsong and regenerates that song with Rhyme of Duotime. Then, you can cast it on turn 4.

Problem is by that time, most combats are over, or have long since already been decided.

It's actually two problems -- spell points and max spell points so that you can cast Resurrection. There are a few items that could give boosts (Kael's Axe, elven armor) but I'm not sure what the max spell points would be for a Vanguard in plate.

As best I can figure out, the most spell points you can get from items *without* wearing elven armor is

+1 Kael's Axe
+2 silver Circlet
+1 mothren sword

for a total of four.

Last edited by Hieronymous Alloy on September 25th, 2018, 5:47 pm, edited 1 time in total.

I ended up going paladin build and I'm actually very happy with it. If you need a "resurrect" things have already gone very sour, but the bonus damage from Veteran works really well with the cleric tree. You do need to go swords though as swords have a +spell point bonus.

Nice thing is that due to paladin's high strength, flesh restore is very strong.

Last edited by Hieronymous Alloy on September 27th, 2018, 6:31 am, edited 1 time in total.

I'm also having a really hard time getting the cleric Mana stance to work. It usually gives a "no valid target" popup and then doesn't seem to initiate. DOes it not work in the front rank or something?

I'm also having a really hard time getting the cleric Mana stance to work. It usually gives a "no valid target" popup and then doesn't seem to initiate. DOes it not work in the front rank or something?

It sometimes is on cooldown on the first turn of the combat, I'm not sure why.

Also, I have seen the "no valid target" popup when my cleric is stealthed at the beginning of combat because I have the rogue skill that stealths the whole party. I am not aware of any other circumstance that causes that.

I'm also having a really hard time getting the cleric Mana stance to work. It usually gives a "no valid target" popup and then doesn't seem to initiate. DOes it not work in the front rank or something?

It sometimes is on cooldown on the first turn of the combat, I'm not sure why.

Also, I have seen the "no valid target" popup when my cleric is stealthed at the beginning of combat because I have the rogue skill that stealths the whole party. I am not aware of any other circumstance that causes that.

Oh yeah, that could be doing it. I guess I need to unstealth him first somehow.